Akito Y. Kawahara Explained

Akito Y. Kawahara
Birth Place:	New York City, United States
Fields:	Biology Evolutionary Biology Entomology
Workplaces:	University of Florida
Education:	Cornell University, B.S. Smithsonian Institution & University of Maryland, M.S. and Ph.D. all in Entomology
Alma Mater:	Cornell University
Known For:	Entomology, Evolution
Website:	Profile

Akito Y. Kawahara is an American and Japanese entomologist, scientist, and advocate of nature education, and the son of the modern conceptual artist On Kawara.

Kawahara is a Professor and Curator at the University of Florida and lead researcher at the Florida Museum of Natural History's McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity.^[1] He was named Director of the McGuire Center in August 2023.^[2] He holds the position of Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History.

Education

Kawahara received his bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 2002 and his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland with Dr. Charles Mitter through the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History in 2010. He was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa before starting his position at the University of Florida.

Career

Kawahara's research interests are insect evolution, predator-prey interactions, and genetics. He has published over 175 peer-reviewed scientific papers, and has received many national and international awards. Among his largest contributions are papers on the evolution of butterflies and moths.^{[3] [4] [5]} He also conducts research on ultrasound production and hearing in moths and echolocation in bats, which he works on with Dr. Jesse Barber.^{[6] [7] [8] [9]} He has also published numerous papers on the importance of insects as models for nature education, including a highly popular article on the action items that every individual can do to help global insect declines.^[10]

Awards and recognition

He has appeared in numerous films and television shows, includingNature

"American Spring LIVE" (2019),^[11] Nature: "Nature's Sex, Lies, and Butterflies" (2018),^[12] David Attenborough's Conquest of the Skies 3D (2015), and Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (2009).

Personal life

Kawahara was born in New York City, United States. He is the son of modern Contemporary Artist, On Kawara. As a child, he traveled between New York and Tokyo annually, attending two schools simultaneously, a schooling called "Taiheiyou-tsugaku" (Trans-Pacific Commute). He resides in Florida and New York, and has two children.

Selected publications

• Barber . Jesse R. . Kawahara . Akito Y. . Hawkmoths produce anti-bat ultrasound . Biology Letters . 23 August 2013 . 9 . 4 . 20130161 . 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0161 . 23825084 . 3730625.
• Barber . Jesse R. . Leavell . Brian C. . Keener . Adam L. . Breinholt . Jesse W. . Chadwell . Brad A. . McClure . Christopher J. W. . Hill . Geena M. . Kawahara . Akito Y. . Moth tails divert bat attack: Evolution of acoustic deflection . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 3 March 2015 . 112 . 9 . 2812–2816 . 10.1073/pnas.1421926112 . 25730869 . 4352808 . 2015PNAS..112.2812B . free.
• Breinholt . Jesse W. . Earl . Chandra . Lemmon . Alan R. . Lemmon . Emily Moriarty . Xiao . Lei . Kawahara . Akito Y. . Resolving Relationships among the Megadiverse Butterflies and Moths with a Novel Pipeline for Anchored Phylogenomics . Systematic Biology . 1 January 2018 . 67 . 1 . 78–93 . 10.1093/sysbio/syx048 . 28472519 . 3658506 . free.
• Espeland . Marianne . Breinholt . Jesse . Willmott . Keith R. . Warren . Andrew D. . Vila . Roger . Toussaint . Emmanuel F.A. . Maunsell . Sarah C. . Aduse-Poku . Kwaku . Talavera . Gerard . Eastwood . Rod . Jarzyna . Marta A. . Guralnick . Robert . Lohman . David J. . Pierce . Naomi E. . Kawahara . Akito Y. . A Comprehensive and Dated Phylogenomic Analysis of Butterflies . Current Biology . March 2018 . 28 . 5 . 770–778.e5 . 10.1016/j.cub.2018.01.061 . 29456146 . 3346155 . free. 10072/384394 . free .
• Kawahara . Akito Y. . Plotkin . David . Espeland . Marianne . Meusemann . Karen . Toussaint . Emmanuel F. A. . Donath . Alexander . Gimnich . France . Frandsen . Paul B. . Zwick . Andreas . Reis . Mario dos . Barber . Jesse R. . Peters . Ralph S. . Liu . Shanlin . Zhou . Xin . Mayer . Christoph . Podsiadlowski . Lars . Storer . Caroline . Yack . Jayne E. . Misof . Bernhard . Breinholt . Jesse W. . Phylogenomics reveals the evolutionary timing and pattern of butterflies and moths . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 5 November 2019 . 116 . 45 . 22657–22663 . 10.1073/pnas.1907847116 . 31636187 . 6842621 . 2019PNAS..11622657K . free.
• Kawahara . Akito Y. . Reeves . Lawrence E. . Barber . Jesse R. . Black . Scott H. . Opinion: Eight simple actions that individuals can take to save insects from global declines . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 12 January 2021 . 118 . 2 . e2002547117 . 10.1073/pnas.2002547117 . 33431563 . 7812750 . 2021PNAS..11820025K . free.
• Kawahara . Akito Y. . Barber . Jesse R. . Tempo and mode of antibat ultrasound production and sonar jamming in the diverse hawkmoth radiation . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 19 May 2015 . 112 . 20 . 6407–6412 . 10.1073/pnas.1416679112 . 25941377 . 4443353 . 2015PNAS..112.6407K . free.
• Kawahara . Akito Y. . Breinholt . Jesse W. . Phylogenomics provides strong evidence for relationships of butterflies and moths . Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences . 7 August 2014 . 281 . 1788 . 20140970 . 10.1098/rspb.2014.0970 . 24966318 . 4083801.

External links

• The Kawahara Lab

Notes and References

1. Web site: Florida Museum Faculty Spotlight.
2. Web site: Akito Kawahara named director of McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity.
3. Web site: Butterflies and plants evolved in sync, but moth 'ears' predated bats. 21 October 2019.
4. News: How the Butterfly Discovered Daylight. The New York Times. 21 October 2019. Wade. Nicholas.
5. Web site: Scientists Trace Butterfly and Moth Evolutionary History. 1 August 2014.
6. Web site: The Evolution of Hawkmoths' Sonar Jamming. 13 May 2015.
7. Web site: Moths Vibrate Genitals to Scare Bats. https://web.archive.org/web/20150924044704/http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2013/07/08/moths-vibrate-genitals-to-scare-off-bats/. dead. September 24, 2015. 8 July 2013.
8. News: Moth Tails Divert Bats. The New York Times. 16 February 2015. Quenqua. Douglas.
9. News: A Textbook Evolutionary Story About Moths and Bats Is Wrong. The Atlantic. October 21, 2019. Yong. Ed.
10. Kawahara . Akito Y. . Reeves . Lawrence E. . Barber . Jesse R. . Black . Scott H. . Opinion: Eight simple actions that individuals can take to save insects from global declines . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . 12 January 2021 . 118 . 2 . e2002547117 . 10.1073/pnas.2002547117 . 33431563 . 7812750 . 2021PNAS..11820025K . free.
11. Web site: PBS American Spring Live. .
12. Web site: Sex, Lies and Butterflies. . 2 Mar 2018.